California gets rid of 7,112 "non-essential" vehicles

That's what a bunch of California state employees may be saying after a bunch of them just lost use of state-owned, state-fueled vehicles as part of the cash-strapped state's effort to cut costs.

Gov. Jerry Brown this week threw the hammer down, cutting the state's fleet by 7,112 vehicles, or about 14 percent of the state-owned total. Combined with the previous (yes, Arnold's) gubernatorial administration, the state's fleet will be about 20 percent smaller than it was in 2010.

Specifically, the state thinned out vehicle-count in state-run departments by 4,204 light-duty vehicles, which will result in a $12.6 million annual reduction in fueling, insurance and depreciation expenses.

And the other 3,000-odd vehicles? Those had "home-storage" permits, meaning that employees were allowed to commute in them. Taking those cars back and trashing them will save the Golden State about $3 million a year.

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If America's billionnaires and large corporations paid their fair share, then it would not only pay for all deficits, it would allow for taxes to be lowered for everyone. When it's only the bottom 3/4 paying taxes, a crisis in inevitable.

People seem to think that taxing the rich more will solve all possible excessive spending. This is simply not the case. The "Buffet Rule" or "Millionaire's Tax" would result in about $5 billion additional revenue per year. Tax the rich more, fine, I'm down with that. But spending has to be cut MASSIVELY. Just the INTEREST on the national debt exceeds the entire annual budget of the US Army.

Carrying out state business still requires the use of cars. You can either supply them or pay the employee for the use of their car. State owned cars are cheaper than paying mileage. This is looking like showing savings in one area with no discussion of the increase in travel claims. Amazing how that works. Don't you love it when right wingers see nothing wrong a wealthy Republican governor Christy calling out a state limousine to transport him a few hundred yards to a misappropriated national guard helicopter while leaving his son's football game(not state business), but take pot shots at state workers doing their jobs and uses the occasion of a Democratic governor cutting expenses to criticize "libs". Hope the wizard give Gene a brain.

When US economy goes over the fiscal cliff in January 1st 2012 and it has to start saving $600 billions these cutbacks will seem quite light across local government. UK has cut back everything to the bone shut down toilets, libraries, youth clubs, police stations, cut 100,000s of military, teaching, police, local government jobs & services and despite all the austerity is only saving $5 billion a year, the US $600 billion fiscal cliff is gonna hurt next year, not unless they kick the can down the road with more QE for future generations no born yet payback in the future who are gonna hate those that run up the approaching 16 trillion US debt mountain. Bloomberg... Cities and towns may face additional pressure from the so- called fiscal cliff, which would amount to more than $600 billion in tax increases and cuts in government programs next year unless Congress acts. The Congressional Budget Office in May said an economic loss of that size would probably lead to a recession. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-08-06/city-town-returns-beat-states-for-7-straight-months-muni-credit

Do you have any idea how much the wars of the last decade have cost us? Off the top of your head? I didn't think so. Gotta love the ideologues that say that quantitative easing will lead the US economy to rack and ruin, but remain silent on the effects of spending/borrowing the same amount for war.

Hey! i don't like QE or the wars. How could you not be against both? The federal reserve can print whenever they feel like it, and that's a massive problem. And the wars only benefit the rich and act as a subsidy for oil, at the cost of your dollars and the lives of our young men and women.. Money printing ends up eating at your savings. It ultimately hurts the poor because the lower end of wages do not go up, but prices on everything do go up. Savings are then worth less money as well - that ends up hurting old folks too. This affects the trade balance as well. Does it ruin our economy? probably not. Does it hurt it even further? yes! Even Bernanke admits that he's printing money if pressed hard enough.. he admits that it is a tax.. it is not a solution for an income to spending ratio mismatch. You used the wrong term for people who support the war - the correct term is criminals. QE is a symptom of a bigger problem.

If only there were some very wealthy people in this country who are not paying their fair share in taxes. If only there were some very successful corporations who don't really need government subsidies.

Hm, they are *this* far in the hole ( $617 billion deficit - that's a lot just for a state! ) and after cutting many services ( hitting the colleges extremely hard, for one ), they finally get around to cutting a fraction of the government workers' benefits ( free car ) ? California has an amazingly bloated budget with tons of fat in it. We'll see more of this..

Not paying their fair share? The upper income tax rate is >35%, but often gets whittled down far below that with exemptions. So let's take a scenario where mr. richy rich is paying 20%.. What's 20% of a million dollars? 200,000. Do you wanna know what i pay in federal taxes for the past few years? I make around $20k a year, so i pay around $3,000.. 200,000 / 3,000 = a person with a million dollar income is paying 66 times more tax dollars than i am every year. My calculator seems to not agree with you. On the subsidies issue, i agree. I want all corporate / industry subsidies gone. Government should not pick the winners and losers, they do a bad job. I am also not fond of the idea of corporate welfare - who is?

Ending our occupation in the middle east would go a long way towards cutting costs. Where do you expect more revenue to come from? Mitt pays only 13% in taxes, my rate is well over double that because I work for a living and I don't use offshore bank accounts and shell corporations to hide my money. Capital gains should be taxed at the same rate as income. I say that as someone who owns a good deal of stock. Also, fancy riding horses should not be tax deductible.

How much is paying "their fair share"? Even if the tax breaks are allowed to expire, that only adds $80B in revenue by the top income earners -- a far cry from covering the expenses of Obama's $1.3 trillion a year deficit. The solution isn't higher tax rates but less spending and more revenue.

@westerberg 13% - butt the capital gains rate is 15%? Mitt's only income is from capital gains. Being retired, he doesn't have ordinary income like people that work. With standard deductions and his many charitable deductions, I'm surprised he is paying 13%. Seems more than fair to me. I make most of my money from working for a salary. I pay tax on it. Now if I invest some of it in stocks or maybe limited partnerships or whatever, I will have to pay 15% capital gains on the possible gains (profit). Butt remember I already paid tax on the frigging money that I used to make my capital gains. Fair ??? Somewhat. But you limp-wristed libs always bitch about someone else making money. It is in your genes and part of your weak character - jealousy. Typical socialists think that the rich should pay 100% tax minus some meager amount so they can live on about the same amount as the average democrat working at Walmart. If I was that rich guy, I'd just say fugit, I won't buy my Frisker made in Finland, I won't buy a yacht, I won't spend big bucks on fancy meals at fancy restaurants and tip BIG, I won't invest in companies that employ people. Just fugit. I'll take my money and retire to a nice little island somewhere. Obozo the multi-millionaire - hates the rich. Class warfare is a proven way to get the vote of morons. Malcontents - filled with hate. I've never gotten a job from a poor person.